Deep breath…
Not so cute now…
I leave you alone for a week, and what happens? It was all very well allowing the children to shake the box… such a nice rattle noise to keep them amused for a while, and all… but who on earth thought it was a good idea to open it for them? These three, overgrown toddlers really should not be allowed outside, never mind handing them matches…
I’ve kept a low profile. Having been through the whole Scottish independence debacle, the (almost) immediate switch to UK independence was WAY too much to bear. I have friends on both sides. Some things are not worth losing friends over. The machinations of an overfed elite, as they trip over each other to manipulate a system designed to ensure that they always win, being one of them…
To say that the result is disappointing, would be an understatement matched…
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When worlds collide
And you and I
Can only reach
To touch the sky
To find, alas
The sky
Has
Gone away
To star in yet
Another day
Upon a stage so far away
When worlds collide
©Copyright Stephen Tanham, 2016.
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A dear friend allows us to publish her paper given at our Leaf and Flame workshop.
The Patrician Lady is a much-loved and respected member of the esoteric community who, for the last two years, has shared her own perspective on the subject matter of the April workshops. She has kindly permitted us to reproduce the text of the talk that she gave at Leaf and Flame, where the central theme was the story of Gawain… a talk which, as one Companion stated, is “worthy of a workshop in itself.”
Faith, Belief or Gnosis – Did Gawain have Faith?
by The Patrician Lady for the Silent Eye workshop:Leaf and Flame: the Foliate Man, April 2016.
Today we’re going to look at the words Faith, Belief and Gnosis and to offer a perspective on Faith as used by Jesus in the gospels which has relevance to Christian Western Mysteries. After this we will look at the response of Gawain when tested by the Green Knight. Did…
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My thoughts on yesterday’s results, for what it’s worth.
We have been mauled by a team of wreckers, acting out of self interest, at a time when the political opposition is weak. Cameron gambled with the nation’s future and has lost; but we have lost far more than he. We now face the prospect of being seen as xenophobic and bitterly divided, which the result shows to be partly true.
But British people are, apart from the thugs, not like that, and somehow we must find a way through this, never forgetting how deadly it is to sleep when forces of purely self-Interest seek to change a value system cultured by caring people over half a century after the second of two European wars.
The economic effects on our trading and credit status will be catastrophic and the ‘myophobes’ are just waking up, startled, at what they have done.
Truly a hijacking of our former moral and political status.
The really sad thing it that the human fodder for the right wing coup that this is will suffer the most, but the wrecking crew knew that all along; and knew they only had to push the right banalities of race and ‘sovereignty’, hypnotising the unthinking mass with the hypnotic phrasing of ‘take back control’ to make happen the dreadful result of yesterday.
Sadly, we are now faced with the result, and the majority of British business stares at the disappearing back of David Cameron in disbelief.
I do not mean to imply that all those voting for Brexit were unthinking; many are very intelligent people who passionately believed that ‘independence’ could be right path. But this age is one of extreme connectedness, and we have signalled to the world that we are prepared to let a mainly older group of our population decide on an isolated future, closing all sorts of doors for our children.
This morning we see that our international credit ratings have been slashed and that many major banks and manufacturing operations are planning their moves away from Britain so that they can remain in an EU geography.
Pandora’s box has well and truly been opened…
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What Curves Caress
(In the style of Sufi poetry)
What curves caress the distant sky when distance is not known?
What shades of finest touch release the moment new which is not held?
What depths of shade use shadow only to conceal the deeper joy?
And in that joy, behind the shade, behind the touch, behind the sky, itself, will I not see you?
(c)Copyright Stephen Tanham, 2016.
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After the Mist
This post is in response to Hugh’s Views and News photo challenge with the subject of ‘After”
At the end of our lovely weekend in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, we woke, on the Sunday morning, to a thick mist outside the small hotel’s windows. It was still present, but clearing as we set out to gain access to the coastal footpath that would take us the mile or so to the seaward side of St David’s village and our eventual destination – the Cathedral.
Soon, we were at the point where you come off the sea path and are greeted by the old stone chapel of St Non, mother of St David.
St Non was said to have been raped by a local prince, giving rise to her pregnancy, which was marked by various signs as a holy one. St David was the result and the place of St David has been revered ever since.
It used to be the edict that two pilgrimages to St David’s were considered by the church to be the equivalent of one to Rome; three the equivalent of one to Jerusalem.
By the time we got to St Non’s Chapel, the mist had lifted.
Want to join the fun? Here’s what you need to do.
1. Take or choose a photo that you’ve taken which interprets After.
2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 30 – ‘After’
3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to the post and tell us a little about what you are showing.
4. Create a *pingback to this post and/or leave a link to your post in the comments section so other participants can view the post.
*Due to the current problem WordPress is experiencing with Pingbacks (read the post here), I’d highly recommend that you copy and paste a link to your entry into the comments section of this post.
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Coffee and Haiku Cake – “High Summer’s Kiss”
by Steve Tanham
“High Summer’s Kiss”
⦿
Floating, curling gold
Of pristine fullness, forming
Shining solstice kiss
⦿
Feel free to share or re-use, but kindly leave the notice intact to help
the Silent Eye School.
©Copyright Stephen Tanham, 2016
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A Bridge for all our Fathers…
This post is in response to Hugh’s Views and News photo challenge with the subject of ‘Open”
Since it’s Father’s day, and I’ll be driving back from a Silent Eye Weekend in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, for most of the day, I’d like to dedicate the post to all our Fathers, particularly those who fought in the two European wars of the last century.
They weren’t just British soldiers of course, many other countries sent their troops in support of a desperate Britain as the Nazi forces closed in. Apart from those brave souls who joined us, we stood alone then because we had taken a stance against the darker forces of extremism, not because we had closed ourselves off.
The European Union was conceived as a response to those wars; in the belief that interaction, dialogue, and, dammit, showing other people that we were just as human as them, would make a difference.
It did, and for over sixty years peace has been the climate of Europe.
Today, we in Britain stand on the brink of another disaster – that of leaving the European community on the basis of manipulation by a group of right-wing interests, many of whom do not live in the UK and do not pay taxes here; but control vast sections of the press. These interests pretend to represent the common ‘man’ and his/her sovereignty; despite the fact that Europe has done more to safeguard human rights in the UK than any of the indigenous political parties.
Source Wiki CC Fair Use
Many will remember Herbert Mason’s famous picture of St Paul’s Cathedral (above), unscathed but surrounded by the acrid smoke of the blitz covering the ruins of inner London.
My own humble offering, (top), has a night sky that prompted the comparison, but has a new bridge (The Millennium footbridge) connecting it, across the ‘water’ to the ‘greater world’.
My bridge is Open… and the pic seemed an entirely appropriate response to Hugh’s latest photo challenge.
For the memory of all the Fathers who went before us, I hope Britain remains open, too, in heart as well as boundaries. Ironically, we are not alone in facing such challenges, once again.
Happy Father’s Day, everyone… as Edmund Burke said, “All it takes for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing…”
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Water and Night Bridges
⦿
Soft dark breezes
Dance
With opening light-ways
Inciting introspection
In warm summer darkness
⦿
Great running river
Shining
Throws lighted ghosts
From glowing quicksilver
To smiling mind
⦿
The distantly familiar
Casts
Phantoms
Between the reaches
Near and far
⦿
And not too far below
Resounds
The slap of tire on tarmac
As roads of life endure…
⦿
©Copyright Stephen Tanham, 2016
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Next time you’re having a bad, day, a really bad day, console yourself with this…
He was what Dickens would have called a Scrooge, a miser of the first water. He lived in a large house on the south bank of the Thames near where the Golden Hinde now rests.
Bernie stands near to the site of John Overs’ house
His name was John Overs. In the 12th century, he owned, and his servants operated, the ferry service across the span of the Thames that is now London Bridge. He became very rich and had a large house on the south bank.
He resented having to look after his servants and his extended family, despite his riches, and so, one day, he decided he would fake his own death and lie in his coffin, enjoying the sight of them all fasting in his honour.
To his horror, they didn’t…and began to feast and make merry at the passing of the old miser.
Furious at the turn of events, he carried out what Hoffnung would have described as “a loss of his presence of mind” and sat, up, screaming and frothing with rage.
One of his servants, quick of reaction, grabbed an old, broken oar, and with a single blow, thinking to ‘kill the Devil that had possessed the recently surrendered body’ smashed out his brains.
His daughter, Mary, an honest and long-suffering woman, sent for her betrothed lover, who, sadly, in his haste to claim his inheritance, fell from his horse and died on the highway.
Mary-now, presumably bewildered by the turn of events, was so overcome that she spent the inheritance on the founding of a convent, which she promptly entered, seldom to be seen in that perplexing world. The convent change its name many times before becoming the ‘Priory of St Mary over the Rie’; or St Mary Overie.
Today, it is better known as Southwark Cathedral, a splendid place to which I shall return in a forthcoming blog.
For now, I will finish with a final glimpse of John Overy, and his sad demise. When that bad day clutches at you, resist the urge to sit up and scream…
Continue reading “Gems of the South Bank (ii) – A Very Bad Day…”
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Coffee and Haiku Cake – “Involution”
by Steve Tanham
“Involution”
⦿
Ageless grace, whose life
Is fed from silver stars ablaze above
Erupts to green life anew
⦿
Feel free to share or re-use, but kindly leave the notice intact to help
the Silent Eye School.
©Copyright Stephen Tanham, 2016
Sun in Gemini 
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